Police complaint against actor jitendra on sexual harassment

Veteran Bollywood actor Jeetendra has been accused of sexually harassing his cousin 47 years ago. The survivor filed a complaint against the actor on Wednesday.

Jeetendra, whose real name is Ravi Kapoor, is the complainant’s maternal cousin. A complaint has been filed with the Himachal Pradesh’s Director General of Police.

As per the complaint, the alleged incident took place in January 1971, when the victim was 18 and Jeetendra was 28 and the actor “arranged” for the survivor to join him from New Delhi to Shimla on the set of his movie without her “awareness”.

The complainant has claimed that on the night they reached Shimla, Jeetendra returned to the room in an inebriated state, joined the two separate beds and sexually assaulted her.

The allegation comes amid the #MeToo campaign as part of which women have come out about facing sexual abuse at the hands of powerful men. While several ladies have accused Hollywood’s powerful men, the Hindi film industry — while admitting the prevalence of abuse — have not named and shamed as openly.

Jeetendra, 75, is a well-known name in the Hindi film industry.